Inspiring women: Iris Murdoch

"Art and morality are, with certain provisos…one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality. " - Iris Murdoch

It's no surprise that I've always harboured a love for Iris Murdoch. After all, she was an Irish-born philosopher and author; at various stages of my life things I was and wanted to be.

Murdoch always seemed to me to be an unfazed sort of intellect. In my mind, this set her apart from Nin, Woolf, Plath et al—writers I admired in different ways, but whom I have always had trouble fully connecting with. Murdoch embodied a clarity of vision, even when tackling the most abstruse and sensual subjects, that I greatly admired.